Denver Post Features/Entertainment intern Kelsey Fowler is experiencing her first UMS. These are her stories.
“Free popsicles!” The Otter Pops are more like Otter slush, sitting at the bottom of a cooler of quickly melting ice. They were 2-for-1 earlier in the day, and now the man under the tent outside of 3 Kings doesn’t want to take any home.
At the Main Stage, Paper Bird performs with the gusto of the Andrews Sisters, but rather than a boogie-woogie-bugle-boy jam, there are folksy, vintage-sounding harmonies about Colorado. A man wearing a white cat costume, furry paws, tail, ears and all, struts through the crowd in a suit.
On and off the rain falls lightly, never lasting long enough to be a threat. Around the lot, groups try on ratty blonde wigs, handed out for a movie promotion. The audience is now dotted with yellow straw heads, posing for pictures in the new hair.
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Two young girls, wearing Hello Kitty slippers for shoes, weave through the people on the outer edge of the Main Stage lot.
Walking by Hi-Dive, a man spots a pen in someone’s mouth.
“Hey, is that a pen, or one of those…?” He leaves the question hanging, but disappointingly, the pen is just a pen.
The breeze picks up, bringing with it more clouds. The sky darkens as the sun sets, and clouds settle on the horizon. The wind is cleansing.
Atlas Sound is hiding a full band somewhere under or maybe behind the stage. There are just too many sounds to be coming from one man and a guitar. He jokes about how his last audience in Chicago melted away from the heat. He likes the drizzle here tonight, he says.
A block off Broadway, there’s an abandoned, broken flip-flop in the grass. Someone went home without a shoe.
Bonus feature: First impressions from first-time festival-goer Ralph Tunstell: “The highlight for me was the day shows on the outdoor stages. That’s when you get to see how much of a family-friendly showcase this is. Itap a great opportunity to enjoy the weather and socialize as well with a wide variety of people. I just moved to Denver and this was an awesome way to get to know that the city is supportive of local and independent talent.”
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Kelsey Fowler is the 2012 Features Intern at The Denver Post, currently studying nothing music-related at Ithaca College. Help keep her in the loop on .
